The Incidence of Safety Regulation on COVID-19 Compensation Claims

–Pranay Jalan

The Employees’ Compensation Act, 1923, (Act), is the first piece of social security legislation towards providing for speedier, simpler, cheaper and efficient machinery for the determination and payment of compensation to the workmen. The Act is modelled on the premise of a no-fault liability principle, and a liability for payment of compensation under the Act does not accrue due to any fault or wrong doing on the part of an employer. Rather, the compensation is contingent on an employee (victim) showing that an injury arose out of and in course of the employment or in certain occupational diseases there exists a rebuttable presumption that the injury arose out of and in course of the employment. Nearing a decade since its enactment, the provisions of the Act has been subject to a liberal interpretation by virtue of the courts taking a pro victim stance. A testimony to this fact is the notional extension accorded to an employer’s premises, which now includes even an area beyond the boundaries of a traditional workspace.

An onslaught of COVID-19 compensation claims under the Employee’s Compensation Act, would pose yet another challenge before the adjudicatory bodies in determining whether to allow compensation claims under the Act, and if to allow, how to determine liability, given the intervening uncertainty. By affording a similar liberation interpretation to the expression “arising out of and in course of employment” in COVID-related compensation claims, the adjudicatory bodies can entertain such claims, but determining the liability calls for a further enquiry into the question.

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